I think the strategy of promoting coal in the 21st century is basically to be the first to run out of it. Kind of like a furniture store doing a liquidation sal

I think the strategy of promoting coal in the 21st century is basically to be the first to run out of it. Kind of like a furniture store doing a liquidation sale. Nobody wants that product, but the store doing everything they can to sell as much as they can possibly sell is the difference between having a convertible asset and having a liability. In national terms, coal & coal mines = GDP. For every country that mines coal, the goal is to not be the last one selling it for power generation. That's why there is a push from the top to outproduce everyone else. At the rate things are currently going, it looks like China will be the last one selling it. The international market will go first, and finally the domestic market will shrivel up in the next decade or two, and so will coal's material contribution to any country's GDP.